A lot of Koreans, Chinese and Brazilians have Japanese passports. Even a few 'westerners' do too.
You would be amazed how well many diabetics can tell their sugar level at any given moment. It doesn't take more than a month of measuring to learn that.
And you would also be amazed at how often people whose life depends on knowing their glucose levels get it wrong. I'm pretty good at estimating mine on the low (immediate danger) side, but not so good as estimating when my blood glucose is high (long term danger)side.
I'm surprised that the article doesn't mention continous blood glucose monitors which are already readily available - ok, you only implant them for 3-7 days at a time but that will get better. So instead of all the vapourware being mentioned in the article they could have talked about a product which is already here.
This is pretty close to what we do. We have a mac mini hooked up to my inlaw's TV with a webcam on top. Skype and VNCServer is running on the mac (skype since we have a PC at our end). Whenever we want to talk we can VNC to the mac and start the conversation. My wife does it all the time and also uses it to show the inlaws photos from webalbums.
We also have a skype phone setup for those times that you just want to talk and can't be bother with the video link.
Heard that the next Space Shuttle is supposed to carry several Guernsey cows? It's gonna be the herd shot 'round the world.